Vending machine



NOV. 23, 1937. I c, HUGHES 2,100,216

VENDING MACHINE Filed June 10, 1936 5 Sheets-Shea. l

P. C. HUGHES Nov. 23, 1937.

VENDING MACBINE Filed June 10, 1936 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 I I M 9. U l n I n S 0 V: T 5 E W V 0 m n Nov. 23, 1937; P. c. HUGHES 2,100,216

VENDING MACHINE Filed June 10, 1936 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 WfTflfEfF-S'ES IFVIL'YTOR. P/ziZq-o C, Hug/Zeb BY 11 Y'TORAEYS.

P. c. HUGHES VENDING MACHINE Nov. 23, 193 7.

Filed June 10, 1936 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Nov. 23, 1937. HQGHES 2,100,216

VENDING MACHINE Filed June 10, 1936 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Patented Nov. 23, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE VENDING MACHINE Philip 0. Hughes, Brooklyn, N. Y., Application June 10, 1936, Serial No. 84,463

4 Claims.

This invention relates to vending machines, and has for an object to provide an improved construction for stirring'the articles to be vended shortly before they are vended or discharged from the, machine.

Another object of the invention is to provide a vending'machine wherein the coin .used in releasing an article also acts as a connector for causing the actuating mechanism of the machine to opcrate the stirring device each time an article is vended.

An additional object of the machine is to provide a construction whereby the actuating lever forming part of the machine must be completely actuated after the insertion of a coin before a second coin can be utilized.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view partly in elevation and partly in longitudinal section disclosing an embodiment of the invention, the sectional part being taken onthe line i| of Fig. 2; I

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view through Fig. 1 at approximately right angles to the showing of Fig, 1; H

Figi" '3 is a horizontal sectional view through Fig. 1 approximately on the line 3-3;

Fig.4 is a fragmentary sectional view through Fig. 1 approximately on the line 4-4;

Fig. 5 is a horizontal sectional view through Fig. 1 approximately on the line 5-5;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary enlarged sectional view through Fig. 1 approximately on the line 6-6;

Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 6 but on a reduced scale and showing only the actuating lever,

I quadrant and immediate associated parts;

Referring to the accompanying drawings by numerals, I indicates a casing which may be cast metal or any other desired material, said casing being provided with a base 2 and a flaring cupshaped top 3 having an annular flange I. As illusti'ated in Fig. 1 the casing l is hollow and formed with annular offsets 5 and 6 for receiving,

respectively the supporting frame I and the cover plate 8. Above the casing l is positioned a top 9 which may be of any desired material, preferably of transparent glass and alsopreferably formed with an annular flange iii adapted to rest on flange l. The flanges 4 and III are adapted to be connected by suitable means, as for instance an annular strap ll U-shaped in cross section held together by the bolt of a padlock l2 or other suitable means. If desired, a gasket l3 could be positioned between the flanges l and I0. By forming the top 8 of clear or transparent glass the contents of the bowl I may be readily seen and also the action of the stirring arms I5 may be observed. The bowl it may be of glass though preferably it is of sheet metal and provided with a stiffening roll I6 at the upper edge, while at the center of the bottom is provided with an aperture ii, and adjacent this aperture, namely at point i8, is welded, soldered or otherwise rigidly secured to the upper part of the gear ring IS. The gear nng I9 is provided with internal gear teeth continually meshing with the gear wheel which.

functions as hereinafter described to rotate the gear ring l9 and bowl it.

From Fig. 1 it will be observed that a peripheral groove is formed in ring IQ for receiving ballbearings 2| which are held in place by a suitable cone 22 whereby the parts are easily rotated and friction is reduced to a In regard to the plate 8 the same is preferably held in position by friction though it could be secured in place by a screw or other fastening means. The same is true in respect to the frame 1, which frame is preferably a casting. The supporting frame 1 is provided with suitable bores, bosses and other puts as hereinafter fully described for supporting properly certain parts As shown in Fig. 1 there is provided a bore 23 into which the reduced end 24 of shaft 25 extends. A suitable rivet 26 rigidly connects shaft 25 to the frame 1 so that this shaft is held stationary. Mounted on shaft 25 is a hollow double cone deflector orguard 21 which is rigidly clamped in place by reason of the threaded part 28 of the shaft being screwed tightly into a threaded socket in the auxiliary shaft 25'. The various arms ii are rigidly secured in any desired manner to the enlargement 29 of the shaft 25' whereby these arms are held stationary while the bowl ll rotates. The material being vended is placed in the bowl I4 and by reason of the fact that this material is supported by the how], a rotary movement is given to the material and the stationary functioning of the arms I5 will thereby result in mixing and agitating the material. It will be understood that any desired articles may be vended. As illustrated particularly in Fig. 4, almost rectangular articles are shown as being vended by the machine. These articles may be solid pieces of material or may be capsules with other articles mounted therein. The material or the particular articles to be vended form no part of the present invention, exoeptthat they should be of substantially the shape shown in Fig. 4 so that they may be properly fed into the vending chute hereinafter fully described.

The bottom of the double cone 21 is provided with a. spiral wall 30 which does not quite contact with the upper surface of the bottom of bowl I4 so that articles 3i from the bowl I 4 may be readily moved by the friction of the bowl into the spiral runway 32 and be guided thereby ing or otherwise'to the frame I, and the metal of which pocket member 34 is formed is provided with a platform 36 resting on the slideways 35. One part of the platform, namely part 35., is offset downwardly as shown in Fig. 1 and has an actuating tongue or'member 31 connected therewith, said tongue or member 31 being in the path of movement of the pin 38 whereby when this pin is moved over to the position shown in Fig. 6, pocket member 34 will be'moved to the left against the action of spring 34' as shown,

1 in Fig. 1 until the article 3| is opposite the ontrance 38 of the vending chute 40. This chute is shown in side elevation in Fig. 2 and is provided with a depressed portion 4| whereby the article 3| will stop in the depression 4| and the person operating the device may pass his hand through the opening 42 and pick up the article when desired. When the article 3|. reaches the depression 4|, the article has been dispensed as far as the machine is concerned.

Inorder to secure the action above described certain mechanism is used as shown more particularly in Figs. '1, 6, and 7. From these figures;

it will be observed that there has been provided a rock shaft 43 having the upper end suitably mounted in a ballbearing journal structure 44 carried by the frame I. The lower end is rotatably fitted in the base plate 45 as shown in Fig. 2. A member 45 is rigidly secured to the shaft 43, said member having an arc-shaped outer surface and a projection 41 to which one end of the retractile or spring 48 is secured. The

opposite end of spring 48 is connected at 49 to a suitable fitting secured to the base 2. This spring is normally under some tension but when moved to the position shown in'Fig. 7 it is under some appreciable tension and continually tends to move the member 46 towards the left as illustrated in Fig. '7. It is to be noted that the spring 48 rocks the shaft 43 to the left and that the actuatinglever 50 rocks the shaft 43 to the right as shown in Fig. 7.. y

In order to secure this result it is to be noted that the lever 58 is integral with the quadrant though it could be made separate and rigidly secured thereto. Quadrant 5| is a little more than a half circle and is rotatably mounted onshaft 43, the mounting being a suitable ballbearing structure 52 carried by the shoulder 53 formed on shaft 43. The quadrant 5| is preferably provided with reinforcing flanges 54 and 55 so as to stiffen the periphery of the quadrant. Flange 55 is provided with an inwardly extending lug 56 shown particularly in Fig. '7. -Associated with the quadrant 5| is a ratchet 51 having suitable ratchet teeth 58 adapted to enact with the spring-pressed pawl 59. From Fig. 7 it will be observed that one tooth, namely tooth 60, is taller than the remaining teeth so that when the pawl 58 is disengaged the ratchet 51 may quickly move past the pawl without danger of striking any of the teeth 58; A rack 5| is rigidly secured to the ratchet 51' in any desired manner, as for in-. stance by welding or by beingheld thereby by suitable screws 82. This rack carries the pin 38 and also the pin 53. The gear teeth 54 on rack 5| extend approximately a quarter of a circle and continually mesh with the pinion 55 as shown in Fig. 6.

Pinion 55 is keyed or otherwise rigidly secured tionary. A pinion continually meshes with gear wheel 58, said pinion being preferably rigidly secured to a shaft H carried by suitable ballbearing journal members fitted into .the frame 1 as shown in Fig. l. The upper end of shaft H has the gear wheel or pinion 28 rigidly secured. thereto whereby the bowl l4 may be rotated but rotation is indicated by the arrow 12 shown in Fig. 4.

The frame 'I'is formed with a depending memher or boss 13 (Fig. 6) which carries the journal pins 14 and as shown in Figs. 6 and 7. Journal pin 15 is the pin on which the pawl 58 is pivotally mounted. This pawl is provided with a release extension 16 and is also provided with a spring 11 which acts against the hook-shaped leg 18 of thebellcrank lever 19 rotatably mounted on.

only in one direction, and the direction of this pin 14 whereby the pawl 59 is pressed against the ratchet 51 unless held out of contact by the lug 55 pressing against extension'l5 as shown. clearly in Fig. 6. The leg or end of bell crank lever 79 coacts with the pin 63 for swinging the bell crank lever out of the path of movement of lug 55 as shown in Fig. 4 until lug 55 has caused a disengagement of pawl 59.

The device is a coin controlled device wherein the inserted coin is in the mechanical circuit or forms a mechanical connector between the power member, namely lever 58, and the actuated parts. As shown in Fig. 2, the coin is inserted into the coin chute 8| at opening 82 and if it is of the proper size it will slide down the coin chute to the lower end thereof as illustrated in Fig. 9. Ad

which are adapted to swing beneath the chute 8| so as to catch the coin. The member 83 is actuated by gravity and normally remains so that the lugs 85 will be beneath the coin chute. However, when lever 58 is moved over to the position shown in Fig. 6, quadrant 5| will move in alignment with the lower end of coin chute 8!. Before this has taken place the extension 85 of the ratchet 51 moves beneath the chute and swings the plate or member 83 out of the way, whereupon the coin drops into the opening or slot 81 of extension 85. As soon as quadrant 5! is brought into register with slot 8'5 the coin will drop down-' wardly and extend through the slot .88 of quadrant 5i and will rest on the surface 89 (Fig. 2) forming part of the coin discharge chute 98. The

coin discharge chute 38 extends to the coin box 3| 7 of spring 48, whereupon pawl 59 snaps in back of the special high tooth 60. As soon as the lever 58 has reached the point just described it is released or given a. slight shaking movement, whereupon the coin will drop down into the chute as it is immediately above the open part of this chute when the parts are in the position shown 'inFlgJl. Theswingingofthepartstothisposition willpartly'rotate shaft 43 and will bring the spring 48 under tension.

Lever 50 and quadrant 5| are both loose after the coin has been dropped, but in order to elect or discharge the article 3| from pocket member 34 it will be necessary to move the lever 50 back to the position shown in Fig. 6. As the lever and quadrant are moved back lug 56 will strike the hook-shaped lug It and thereby snap past this member. If it is moved no further it is locked against a return movement. However, the proper practice is to move lever 5| and lug 56 as far as possible toward the edge 55. When this is done lug 55 strikes the extendon l5 and swings pawl 55 away from the high tooth 55. As soon as this has been accomplished spring 48 will immediately function and quickly swing the ratchet 51 and the rack il to the position shown in Fig. 6, where upon pin 38 will press the tongue or extension 31 and move the socket 3 4 to the dotted position shown in Fig. 1, whereupon the article 3| carried in this pocket will be allowed to drop by gravity into the vending chute lll. After this has been done lever 50 andquadrant 5| may be swung back and forth without securing any results whatever. Also when this has been accomplished the extension 58 will have moved automatically to a positionbeneaththechute8| soastoreceiveacoin' around until lever 50 strikes point 82 in order to align slot 83 of the quadrant with the slot 81 of the extension 86. By reason of the construction just described it will be seen that when the lever 50 is moved around to the position shown in Fig. 'l the bowl ll will remain stationary, but when spring I! is allowed to function it will rotate the bowl i4 and thereby cause a stirring action in order to stir the various articles 3| so that they will not adhere and so that they may be properly fed into the guideway 32. No particular or deii-' nlte article can be directed intothis guideway but eventually all of the articles in the bowl will be fed into this guldeway and finally discharged as above set forth.

As illustrated particularly in Fig. 2, the coin chute liisadaptedtoreceiveacoinofacertain size, as for instance alive cent piece. Where coins of smaller sizes are inserted, as-for instance a one cent piece or a ten cent piece, said smaller coins will pass-through the opening 55 in the bottom of the chute BI and be discharged into the auxiliary chute 98 which extends downwardly and is connected at 91 to the vending chute 40. By reason of this construction only coins of the proper'size may be used as larger coins could not be placed into chute 8i, and the smaller coins will be directed into the vending chute 5|) so that e a person may readily recover the coins by placing the hand into the depressed portion II.

I claim:

1. A vending machine including a casing, a bowl arranged at the upper part of the casing, said bowl being adapted to receive articles to be dispensed, said bowl having a centrally positioned aperture, means for rotating said how], a double cone guard positioned near the bottom of the bowl and over said aperture, a spirally shaped wall formed with more than one convolution so as to present a spiral passageway, said wail being carried by the lower wall of said double cone guard and positioned to receive articles from the bowl and guide them through said passageway to said aperture, said spirally shaped wall being spaced from the bottom of said bowl, and a discharge chuteextendingthroughsaidaperttneandmsitioned to receive articles that have been guided to the aperture.

2. A vending machine including a support, an article carrying bowl carried by said support, spring actuated means for rotating said bowl, said bowl being formed with an opening in the center of its bottom, manually actuated means for causing said spring actuated means to function, an article discharge chute extending through the opening in the bottom of said bowl for directing an article to a discharge point, and an article discharfle member having a spiral passageway for guiding articles to said discharge chute as said bowl rotates.

3. Avending machine comprising a casing, an article carrying bowl having an opening at the center in the bottom. said bowl being positioned adjacent the upper end of the casing, said bowl being adapted to receive the various articles to be vended, a rotary support for said bowl, spring actuated means for causing said support and said bowl to rotate, manually actuated means for causing said spring actuated means to function, a double cone guard positioned in said bowl near the bottom thereof and over said opening, means carried by the bottom of said double cone guard forming a spiral guideway having its discharge end near said opening, and an article discharge chute extending through said opening to receive articles from said spiral guideway.

4. A vendingmachine cdmprising a casing, a bowl arrangedattheupperpartof saidcasing, said bowl being adapted to receive. articles to be dispensed, said bowl having a centrally positioned aperture in its bottom, a support for said bowl, means for rotating said support andsaid bowl, a stationary shaft extending through said apertur stirring arms carried by said shaft, a double coneshaped guard carried by' said shaft and positioned near the bottom of the'bowl and over the aperture thereinadependingwallcarrledbythe bottom of said double cone-shaped guard forming a spiral pasageway articles from said bowl and guide them to said apertm'e, and a discharge chute extending through said aperture and positioned to receive articles from the outlet end of said passageway.

PHILIP C. HUGHES.

positioned to receive 

